New Brainzooming Articles at Brainzooming.com

Monday, February 11, 2008

Notice something about the ritual of pulling petals from a flower and saying, “she loves me, she loves me not?” There are only two choices – yes or no, one or the other. Makes it all pretty simple. You can force this technique on yourself when you’ve got lots of things to prioritize and are struggling to decide among them.

Say you’re writing a presentation for your senior management and have 15 points you feel you have to make. But you know that there’s no way you’ll get to cover more than 3 of them. Here’s how you can use a forced comparison to help narrow the list:

Write all 15 key messages on individual sticky notes and place them on a wall or desk.

Select two messages and compare them, asking, “If I could only make one of these points, which one is more important?” Place the one you pick at the top of the wall or desk, with the other below it.

Pick up another sticky note, asking the same question relative to the top-most sticky note. If the new sticky note is more important, it goes on top, and the others move down. If it’s not more important, keep moving down and asking the question (Is this one more important or is that one?) relative to each sticky note until it’s appropriately placed based on its importance.

When you’re done, you should have a fairly quick prioritization, getting you out of the trap that everything is equally important. The technique works well either individually or with a group that’s trying to prioritize things in a whole variety of situations. So try it, or try it not…try it!

Q. Who's behind Brainzooming?

He has been at the forefront of leading Fortune 500 culture change, contributing new approaches in research, developing simplified tools for strategic planning, and aligning sales, marketing, and communications strategies for maximum business results. Additionally, he's won multiple awards for his strategic brand-building approach to customer experiences in NASCAR and conference event marketing efforts. He has accomplished these successes through a teaching orientation and providing non-experts with dynamic tools so they can succeed like experts.

Through these sessions, he has shared the Brainzooming approach with thousands of business people, helping them adapt it to strategic planning, branding, marketing, and social media opportunities and challenges.